The present invention relates to a sliver can transport carriage for automatic sliver can exchange operations and, more particularly, to a sliver can transport carriage for supplying full sliver cans to the spinning stations of a spinning machine and transporting empty sliver cans from the spinning stations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,406 to Raasch discloses a sliver can transport carriage having a rotating table for supporting thereon a plurality of sliver cans in respective can supports. The can transport carriage transports a plurality of full sliver cans to a transfer position adjacent the spinning station of a spinning machine and the table rotates to sequentially bring each full sliver can supported on the can transport carriage into position for subsequent transfer to the spinning station. The can transport carriage receives empty sliver cans from the spinning station for subsequent transport of these empty sliver cans to a sliver can refill location.
The rotating table of the above-noted prior art sliver can transport carriage supports four sliver cans thereon at equal radial spacing from the table rotation axis and, by virtue of this geometry, the width of the can transport carriage is substantial and requires a correspondingly wide open area adjacent the spinning machine for travel of the can transport carriage thereadjacent.
German Offenlegungsschrift DE 35 05 496 A1 also discloses a can transport carriage for transporting sliver cans to and from the spinning stations of a textile spinning machine. The transported sliver cans are aligned in a single row during transport thereof. Accordingly, there is still a need for improvement in a sliver can transport carriage which provides the load economizing capability to transport sliver cans in more than a single row while avoiding the need for relatively large open areas adjacent a spinning machine to accommodate a relatively wide transport carriage.